The election of Donald J. Trump in 2016 did not bode well for those under consideration in this short introduction. Latinos in the United States number 54,232,205 according to the 2015 US Census estimate. They constitute the third-largest Latin American “nation” (behind Brazil and Mexico). Yet Trump secured his election by imploring White voters to expel, in his words, “the bad hombres,” and more specifically “Mexican rapists and criminals.”

Chapter 1 starts at step one: who are Latinos? This deceptively simple question is at the heart of this short introduction to Latina/o Studies. Beyond simple terminology and definitions, the US government construction of the Hispanic category placed disparate groups together to meet governmental needs. In response, a sense of shared, common Latino identity, or Latinidad, is in fact quite complex and contested as seen in the variations in terms: Latino, Latina, Latina/o, Latin@, Latinx. Labels and identities are consequential because names matter and they shape individual and group experiences. The chapter concludes by dispelling the commonly held myths of who Latina/os are.

Chapter 2 identifies the major historical events and trends that comprise a shared history of Spanish colonialism and US imperialism. I discuss an intellectual legacy, influencing both Latino/a history and literary studies, left by the historical events of Spanish Conquest and the settlement of the Américas, the US–Mexico War, the Spanish–American War, US military invasions of Cuba, and puppet governments installed to serve US interests (e.g., the Trujillo dictatorship in the Dominican Republic and the CIA-sponsored overthrow of Árbenz in Guatemala). The response was an emergent counter-imperialist impulse by Latin American revolucionarios and independentistas (e.g., Martí, Bolívar, Albizu Campos, Juárez, Villa, Zapata, the Flores Magón brothers). Within the United States, Latina/o leaders emerged during the Chicano and Boricua civil rights and power movements of the 1960s and 1970s, followed by the sanctuary movements of the 1980s, and most recently embedded in the immigrant rights movement of the 2000s. The purpose of this chapter is not to be exhaustive but to be illustrative, looking at the various intellectuals, periods, and patterns so that the selection reflects contemporary scholarship on the historical origins of US Latina/o communities in terms of US government relations, impetuses for migration, and residential settlement patterns.

In chapter 3, I discuss the origins of Latina/o Studies through Puerto Rican and Chicano studies. I first discuss the aligned civil rights and power movements, as undergirding forces opening higher education to Puerto Rican Studies, particularly in the Northeast. This is the period during which most Puerto Rican Studies and Chicano Studies programs began, paralleling or reflecting similar developments in other area studies, e.g., Black Studies, Women's Studies, Native American Studies, Asian American Studies, and Peace Studies.

In the Southwest, the origins of Latina/o Studies can be clearly traced within the rise of Chicano Studies programs. I discuss how Chicano Studies arose both in response to Oscar Lewis’ “culture of poverty” characterization of Mexicanos and as part and parcel of the civil rights and power movements. A pre-Chicano Studies, pre-“culture of poverty” era can certainly be identified through the work of Paul Schuster Taylor, Carey McWilliams, and Manuel Gamio. I discuss the originators (Julian Samora, Americo Paredes, and others) as well as the cultural nationalist, machismo, and heteronormative impulses in early Chicano Studies scholarship. The early interventions of Gloria Anzaldúa will be highlighted to identify how Chicana Studies arose to challenge restrictive early masculinist iterations.

On the East Coast, Puerto Rican studies similarly arose to challenge the “culture of poverty” characterization embodied in Lewis’ La Vida: A Puerto Rican Family in the Culture of Poverty – San Juan and New York. The pioneers of Puerto Rican studies also drew insights and energies from the civil rights and power movements in addition to political work on the island calling for independence from US colonialism, and even earlier in the prescient example of Elena Padilla (1958, 2011). I discuss developments in the rise of Chicano/a Studies and Puerto Rican Studies as autonomous fields as well as early attempts to connect struggles and scholarly analyses, as evidenced by the short-lived Revista Chicano-Riqueña.

One narrative strain I explore in chapter 4 is how within Puerto Rican Studies units and scholarship we see the arrival of Dominican Studies, as well as how within Chicano Studies we see the arrival of Central American Studies. Jorge Duany (2008 [1994]) in Puerto Rican Studies and Rodolfo Acuña (1998) in Chicano Studies are among the first to introduce the experiences of Dominicans, Guatemalans, and Salvadorans into their respective fields’ discussions. Another strain I discuss is how the full-fledged arrival of Latina/o Studies developed from experiences not traditionally addressed in Chicano and Puerto Rican Studies. The early work of Felix Padilla (1985), studying Chicano and Puerto Rican synergies in Chicago, began discussions of a truly Latino political consciousness. Current analyses of Latinidad, as mentioned earlier, provide a strong basis for Latina/o Studies as a full-fledged field both distinct from and an integral part of Puerto Rican and Chicana/o Studies.

Chapter 5 discusses women of color feminism that expounds upon intersectional analyses and lived experiences to show the interconnections of lives in struggle. The chapter begins with the key formative collections in women of color feminism by highlighting the full range of their literary forms (poetry, playwriting, short stories, novels, and social criticism). The themes of multi-identities, standpoint, situated and subjugated knowledges, and gender relations are highlighted in literary and theoretical contributions. Then I discuss how gender studies worked its way into the focus of Latina social scientists and humanists. The chapter finishes with the interrogations of sexuality in the work of queer studies. The focus is on prominent themes in gender, queer, and intersectional analyses.

Chapter 6 identifies a major development in the transdisciplinary field of Latina/o Studies: a resurgent focus on popular culture and Latina/o representations in all forms of media (news, popular culture, music, art, theater, new social media, Spanish-language media) through a variety of fields, including visual studies and performance studies. The first part of the chapter addresses hegemonic representations of Latina/os in popular culture, particularly mainstream mass media that rely on stereotypes, hypersexualized objectifications, hyperviolent male criminalizations, and all too often invisibilizing forms of background or non-representation. The homogenization of Latina/o representations is juxtaposed with the heterogeneous responses on the part of Latina/o creators and artists. The second part of the chapter discusses Latina/o-originated forms of new media, musica, teatro, arte, and corporate Spanish-language media studies.

Chapter 7 takes on the emerging methodological approaches that are reshaping how Latina/o Studies operates in more comparative, intersectional, and engaged forms. No longer is it assumed that a particular Latino community operates in a bubble; each is in fact in connection with other communities (both in solidarity and in conflict) that shape the community as much as the community itself. I identify examples of Latina/o alliances and struggles with other racialized communities. I also discuss the participatory action research model that arose concomitant with the rise of ethnic studies (particularly Chicano and Puerto Rican Studies) and how the contemporary discussion of engaged scholarship is embedded within this long and oft-ignored history. Finally, I discuss the rise in border studies and how both socially constructed physical and mental borders are shaping Latina/o identities. The aim of this chapter is to highlight new methodologies and analytical approaches, such as the importance of testimonios to Latina feministas and the rise of LatCrit in legal and education studies.

Chapter 8 discusses the emerging theoretical developments designed to understand contemporary Latina/o lived experiences. I discuss two theoretical trends: colonization (from coloniality of power, settler colonialism, and decolonization, to postcolonialism) and Latina/o racializations. These illustrate issues not addressed in Latina/o Studies heretofore, as well as the cutting-edge theories that impel the field into long-term divides among Latin American and Latina/o Studies, intra-Latino divisions, citizens and immigrants. I also discuss the shared colonial histories that shape contemporary lived experiences, bridges among Latina/o communities, and current manifestations of Latinidades, as well as intra-Latino racializations, interracial relations, and emerging Latinidades defying the imposition of post-9-11 terrorist–immigrant linkages.

In the conclusion, the future of Latina/o Studies is considered in relation to the external and internal threats to its health and longevity. Potential future areas of inquiry are also detailed.